Learn more by clicking any of the links above or get in touch directly and let's talk about your next project.

Projects

Investors.com

Investor’s Business Daily (IBD) is a leader in the financial, economic, and political news sector. IBD and Doejo collaborated to create a streamlined workflow of content creation within an updated CMS and implemented lightning-fast, seamless integration of online publishing to print production. The front end received a facelift, including flexible page designs, allowing user-friendly layout updates on the fly.

Key Accomplishments

Managed a mix of local and remote developers across DevOps, frontend, and backend teams

Facilitated DevOps improvements resulting in smoother and more frequent deploys

ScreenerTV.com

A facelift of Tribune Media's popular Zap2It brand, Screener is the new home for TV news online. Running on the WordPress.com VIP platform, the modern site provides the same workflow for editors and contributors while enhancing the front end experience for end users.

Key Accomplishments

Managed incoming client requests to ensure an on-time launch

Worked with the WordPress.com VIP and Tribune Media teams to scale the new site to nearly 100k daily pageviews

Performed ongoing maintenance as needed to ensure site performs as needed

Open Source

WordPress to InDesign Bridge

WP->Indesign Bridge is an InDesign plugin that pulls WordPress post content into InDesign through the WordPress REST API. This improves on past solutions because the user doesn't have to leave Indesign to use their existing WordPress content.

Photo Assistant

Photo Assistant is a WordPress plugin that looks at the user's post content and suggests stock images based on the content that is being published. This all occurs within the WordPress media editor and provides a seamless experience for integrating 3rd party images into the WordPress editorial workflow.

WordPress Contributor

I have contributed code to recent WordPress releases, fixing bugs in both the Customizer and REST API. In addition, I have contributed to projects in the WordPress ecosystem such as WP-CLI.

Speaking

Part of learning and participating in the software community is giving back to that same community. I'm proud to have had the opportunity to give back and share my knowledge through webinars and at meetups and conferences around the country.

WordCamp NYC 2017

When you identify a bug in WordPress, where does that information need to be reported? Who fixes it? And how does it eventually get sent out to 25% of the web in the next WordPress Core release? In this talk, we’ll look at the progression of a bug ticket from beginning to end and see how the software we use every day is continually improved.

WordCamp LAX 2017

Open source software is taking the world by storm and by now, most of us use at least one open source tool every day. However, joining that community of people who use and contribute to open source tools can seem daunting. It doesn’t have to be! In this talk, we’ll dive into what open source software really is, how tools like Github make collaborating on software easy, and walk through an example of how you can contribute to the tools you use every day, without writing a line of code!

WordCamp DFW 2016WordCamp KC 2017

Everyone’s code has bugs. Luckily there are almost as many tools to help squash bugs as there are bugs to be squashed. In this talk, we took a detailed look at how to debug and fix some common issues associated with WordPress sites. We explored how Chrome’s Developer Tools can help us pinpoint front end bugs and used the Query Monitor plugin to see what was going on behind the scenes.

WordCamp Nashville 2016WordCamp Cincinnati 2016

The Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin is a powerful tool that allows you to extend the capabilities of WordPress admin without writing any additional code to create these fields. In this talk we explored how ACF allows you to offer additional functionality to your clients, how to use these new fields in your templates, and how to make sure you don’t go too far when adding fields.

Northside WordPress Meetup

You find some blog posts on your site that you didn’t publish. Or you get an email from your host telling you your site is sending out spam email. You've been hacked. What now? In this talk, we covered everything from the basic steps to take to finding the affected portions of your site and removing the malicious code. We also touched on general security practices that can prevent breaches in the future.

Chicago Web Pros Meetup

WordPress now powers over 25% of sites on the web including big names such as Time, CNN, TechCrunch and more. What changes about a WordPress site when it needs to function on such a large scale? In this talk, we looked at how WordPress can be tweaked to serve content to millions of visitors per month, how to keep code modular using custom-built plugins, special considerations for enterprise-sized sites and more.

Consulting

Software development is hard. I work to remove some of that complexity. That's involved teaching classes and mentoring developers, helping grow and lead development teams, and even rolling up my sleeves and taking on the most difficult coding challenges on a given project. Put me to work for your business to smooth out the bumps in your code and process and make your entire team happier and more productive.

How does it work?

Throughout the duration of our engagement, you'll have 24/7 access to me over phone, email, and Slack (chat). I'll make sure to return all messages within one business day, but you will usually hear back from me much quicker.

We will schedule any necessary meetings in advance. These will typically take place over the phone, but can also include video calls and/or screen sharing (e.g. GoToMeeting, Skype, Join.me).

What can I help you with?

In the past, I've been successful with clients looking for support in the following areas:

Roadmapping

Facilitating an initial (usually in-person) meeting between all the project stakeholders to develop a project plan that allows the design and development teams to hit the ground running and takes into account any legacy processes, systems or any other challenges the new project must overcome.

Site Audit

Taking a look at any existing digital assets and determining how them can run more efficiently. From making your site perform faster to making sure you aren't overpaying for infrastructure, you will receive a full report that you can hand to your IT and development teams to help your site run more efficiently.

On-going Code Review

Whether reviewing APIs, external code dependencies or your own team's code, you will receive on-going consultation to make sure technical debt is kept to a minimum and your project doesn't get roadblocked by external dependencies.

Hiring Assistance

Building out a developer team is hard, especially when you're not hiring for a specific project. If you're looking to grow your development team but don't want to get burned by hiring the wrong talent, I'll sit in on the interview and help you review your options.

WordPress Content Migration

I've migrated content from Drupal and legacy .NET content management systems to the tune of more than 100,000 pieces of content. If you have a legacy system that the out-of-the-box migration plugin isn't going to handle, I'll help you build a migration plan, wrangle the necessary scripts and execute them to ensure minimum downtime and project delay during the stage of the project that is often the most difficult.

Regular Process Review

Concerned your project process is getting in the way instead of helping move the project forward? I've worked with teams on projects large and small and seen both good and bad examples of process. I'll regularly meet with the team to make sure your processes aren't introducing any unnecessary roadblocks.

The Specifics

My fee is $2,000 USD per month, all inclusive (i.e., I arrange and pay for any necessary administrative expenses, etc). Professional courtesy discounts are available for quarterly and annual arrangements. Participation is extremely limited. You can elect to be added to the waiting list if spots are not available.

What People are Saying

"When I give any programming or server task to our programmer Keanan he just goes and figures it out without having to ask me a bunch of questions or needing hand-holding. It’s amazing. Be like Keanan."

- Lowell Heddings, CEO, How-To Geek

"Any team fortunate enough to have Keanan with them is stronger. I would jump at any opportunity to work with him again without hesitation."

- Kenny Toffelmire, Project Manager, Dom & Tom

"[Keanan's] always up for a challenge and has solved many coding problems for me. I enjoy working him because he makes it so easy!"